Cynergy – Different Blogingly

A brand is intangible, it only exists as a collection of perceptions in a consumers mind and therefore you cannot create a brand. What you can do however is decide how you want your brand to be perceived, determine a set of motivations and values to direct every action of your organisation toward supporting this perception. What is critical for this process to work is staff involvement. If staff are involved in the decision making process then they will own the policies and will go out of their way to uphold them.

These are the theories behind ‘Picture of Perfection’ – a culmination of years of research work delivered as a quarterly staff event to determine our collective motivations and values. The narrative went, “Think back to a place, maybe in your youth, maybe not too long ago, where anything and everything seemed possible. When you took your first lecture eager to learn, before you started skipping them, when you formed your band and were going to change the course of musical history, when you grasped your first pay packet in your grubby little hands. At those moments our picture of perfection is often clearer, sparkling, attainable, within our grasp. For some of us it might still be, but sometimes we get tired, bored, skint or stressed, and it is easy to lose sight of what we’re doing this for.”

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This week I took on the challenge of assisting my local junior school with a superb creative endevour. Eco Art Challenge – a two day whole school event, that had kids from every year group working together to create a wealth of stunning art and craft work on a recycling/reusing theme.

From creating jigsaws, giant collage fish, weaving, painting, drawing and endless cutting and sticking. It was chaotic, messy, spontaneous, full of life and fun, everything creativity should be.

Considering that I was working with 6-7 year olds the level of ability was amazing. Some of the more mathematical art challenges even had me baffled. The day was over in a flash, the pace and energy of the work was so engaging that I wished I could of returned the following day for the second leg.

I genuinely believe that the messages underlying the activities were absorbed by the kids. At the very least their unquestionable enjoyment of the event will no doubt spill over into their home lives. Those positive statements of caring for our world and developing a more thoughtful attitude toward consumption will no doubt be repeated by the enthusiastic artists I worked with.

After all, when they understand and hold a belief, there is nothing more persuasive than our kids.

Nick.